There’s an ‘imbalance’ in the Lehigh Valley housing market and prices are up as result

If you’re trying to sell a lower-priced home right now in the Lehigh Valley, you’re in luck.

But if you’re trying to buy a cheap home in the region, good luck.

Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors on Wednesday released its monthly housing market report for October. The takeaway, GLVR says, is that a low supply of houses on the lower end of the market is holding back sales and leaving first-time home buyers with few options.

“An imbalance persists for mid- to lower-priced homes, with solid demand and insufficient supply, which is consequently pushing up home prices,” GLVR CEO Justin Porembo says in a statement that accompanies the latest report.

The numbers to back up this assessment are clear: Inventory shrank 26.1% last month compared to October 2018. In the same comparison, closed sales were down 5.5%. Meanwhile, the median sales price of a home in the market jumped 6.7% and landed at $212,000 last month, according to the GLVR report.

GLVR President Carl Billera expressed optimism by pointing to Fannie Mae forecasting that mortgage rates will remain low and possibly dip even lower in 2020.

“Our hope is that these low rates will continue to support buyer demand and help people get into the home of their dreams,” Billera said.

Here are some additional key numbers we pulled from the latest report, which analyzes the housing market in Carbon County in addition to the Lehigh Valley:

The year-to-date median housing price for the region is $207,000, up 3.5% compared to 2018.

Despite the October dip in closed sales, year-to-date closed sales are actually up compared to 2018, albeit by only 0.7%.

There were 924 new listings last month, an 8.2% decrease from October 2018.